Your 10 free NES games are ready for your 3DS, ambassador

If you purchased your 3DS before the price drop, you now have access to ten …

Nintendo is trying to make those who purchased their 3DS before the price drop feel like their money was well spent by offering a suite of 20 free games. The first ten NES games were expected to be released tomorrow, but you can go ahead and download them all now. You simply need to enter the eShop, select "Settings/Other," scroll to "Your Downloads" and then click "redownload" next to each game. It's a little cumbersome, but hey... free games.

Here is a full list of the free games available today:

The Legend of Zelda

Metroid

Super Mario Bros.

Yoshi

Wrecking Crew

NES Open Tournament Golf

Donkey Kong Jr.

Balloon Fight

Ice Climber

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Remember, you needed to grab a 3DS and log onto the eShop before the price was dropped in order to become an ambassador and be eligible for these free games. There will also be 10 free GameBoy Advance games released before the end of the year.

I've had a chance to play a few of these games, and they all work fine on the 3DS, and my kids are ecstatic about having a brand-new (to them) selection of games. Also be sure to download the ambassador certificate, which allows you to set up notifications for when the rest of the games become available. Enjoy!

Man, you really don't understand how cumbersome the 3DS store is until you have to download each of those one. by. one.

Good deal either way, I know what I'm playing tonight.

My concern with this Ambassador program is how you would make sure that this account flag carries over if your 3DS ever dies, or you get a newer model of 3DS. I'd rather dislike the possible idea of this being tied only to the 3DS I originally logged in with.

Simon's Quest was amazing. I liked that game so much more than the other Castlevania's. I wish there was a good re-make of it. I still even have my end-game save game password committed to memory:tezz xtdx u45v 81b1

Zelda II is the worst Zelda of them all in my mind. That doesn't mean it was a bad game, it was just an exercise in frustration for me. Curse you Iron Knuckles!

Iron Knuckles are easy! Just jump and slash in the air on the way down. This way the sword slices through the helmet and you'll bypass that damn shield every time. I love Zelda II.... it was my favorite game to glitch.

Meh, kids will play these games about as much as we used to, that's the beauty of it. My son's favourite game on the Wii was... Zelda: A Link to the Past. So yeh, that's a whole lot of gaming goodness and nostalgia wrapped up into a neat little package. Almost makes me wish I'd bought a 3DS at the Ludicrous Price stage. Almost...

Once the price drop was announced, I hurried to Best Buy to get my $250 3DS, knowing that they have 30-day price drop protection. I explained to the sales person when I bought that I was doing exactly that. I logged in to the eShop, claimed my Ambassador status and then went back to get my $80 back after the price drop. Double dip!

I'm most excited for the GBA Yoshi's Island. It seems that the SNES version will never be coming out on Wii's Virtual Console, since it used the SuperFX chip.

I understand why Nintendo created this Ambassador program, but it doesn't make me too happy. I wasn't able to buy the 3DS before the price drop, but I still want the GBA selection they will be making available (I would have to pay for it, of course). I know their statement that they "don't have plans to release those games outside the Ambassador program" was probably made for strategic reasons, but if they actually don't release GBA games outside the program, it will be very disappointing.

It doesn't have save states in the classic sense, but it does suspend your game if you close it down. So no writing down the annoying codes in Metroid, just pause, close program, turn off 3DS. It's right where you left it when you start again.

I was able to get all mine downloaded last night.

Was it worth the $40 value that is the first batch? Yeah, I think so. Wish Kid Icarus would have been on there though instead of WTF Golf!

Was it worth the $40 value that is the first batch? Yeah, I think so. Wish Kid Icarus would have been on there though instead of WTF Golf!

Do the NES games have the "Restore Point" that the gameboy games have?

And Golf is the only game on that list NOT worth buying (except maybe Wrecking Crew, and that's only because I haven't played it.) And it's unlikely that they'll be $4 each. So yes, I think it was a $40 value even though I wouldn't say it's split $40/$40 NES/GBA value. The GBA titles are looking incredible.

I am excite. I'm still going through Gargoyle's Quest, once I beat that I'll probably start up Yoshi. After dying so many times in GQ... my ego needs a break.

Was it worth the $40 value that is the first batch? Yeah, I think so. Wish Kid Icarus would have been on there though instead of WTF Golf!

Do the NES games have the "Restore Point" that the gameboy games have?

And Golf is the only game on that list NOT worth buying (except maybe Wrecking Crew, and that's only because I haven't played it.) And it's unlikely that they'll be $4 each. So yes, I think it was a $40 value even though I wouldn't say it's split $40/$40 NES/GBA value. The GBA titles are looking incredible.

I am excite. I'm still going through Gargoyle's Quest, once I beat that I'll probably start up Yoshi. After dying so many times in GQ... my ego needs a break.

Wrecking Crew is terrible.

Just turning on the 3DS and opening Metroid the first screen looks like this.

An online Nintendo experience that is less than optimal? Should we be surprised?

well, not to absolve them from their incredibly 1995 internet mindset but microsoft took forever to finally get the license transfer stuff going when the 360's were barfing up their innards every day and being replaced so there's that mess for anyone who had arcade games and had to get the box replaced (again and again and again).

but yeah, nintendo has no clue and apparently won't even contract out. sad.

Do the NES games have the "Restore Point" that the gameboy games have?

Nintendo has said that we Ambassadors get the games earlier than everyone else with simple suspend. Once the games are given wider release on the Virtual Console store they'll be updated with the restore points and multiplayer (yes, multiplayer)--and Ambassadors will be able to download the updated versions.

So right now we're getting a quick and dirty release without any extras (except for "suspending" the game instead of quitting it whenever we close it) and get the full Virtual Console releases with enhancements later.

An online Nintendo experience that is less than optimal? Should we be surprised?

well, not to absolve them from their incredibly 1995 internet mindset but microsoft took forever to finally get the license transfer stuff going when the 360's were barfing up their innards every day and being replaced so there's that mess for anyone who had arcade games and had to get the box replaced (again and again and again).

but yeah, nintendo has no clue and apparently won't even contract out. sad.

What makes this even worse is that Nintendo supposedly is contracting their internet infrastructure out this time. It makes me sad.

Neither Nintendo nor Sony seems particularly capable of making decent system software, but Nintendo doesn't even seem like it's trying.

Well after not getting any new news updates i dug around and discovered the downloads in the menu other/settings tab and stranger still after each dl it said continue but then i had to re find the other/settings tab. Very clunky i simply expected ambassadors to have a tab in their virtuial consoles section where you would get the games.

Here's hoping we get zelda a link to the past,advance wars,shining force,astro boy,super robot taisen og,black hole assault or at least that nintendo considers these as some of gba best games.

What would you guys want to see in addition to fusion? All the mario advance games?

Nintendo needs to give us folders on the 3DS menu so I can make a separate folder per system. I already have purchased 2 original GB games, and now have 10 NES games. With 10 more free GBA games coming down the pipe, 3DSWare eventually likely getting some games worth buying, and my inevitable re-purchasing of my old GameGear favorites once Sega gets those games on there, I'm going to run out of tile space relatively soon. You'd think they learned this lesson after having the same exact issues with the Wii's page limit early on.

Nintendo needs to give us folders on the 3DS menu so I can make a separate folder per system. I already have purchased 2 original GB games, and now have 10 NES games. With 10 more free GBA games coming down the pipe, 3DSWare eventually likely getting some games worth buying, and my inevitable re-purchasing of my old GameGear favorites once Sega gets those games on there, I'm going to run out of tile space relatively soon. You'd think they learned this lesson after having the same exact issues with the Wii's page limit early on.

Yes, it would be nice to have a folder for each virtual console or something. I'm not even sure how to delete old videos from E3 on this thing and I don't like individually moving around icons.

It seems that the SNES version will never be coming out on Wii's Virtual Console, since it used the SuperFX chip.

They can't emulate the SuperFX chip? I know tons of SNES emulators can run that game just fine.

Clearly it's technically possible (100% perfect emulation notwithstanding), but it is odd that two of the biggest SNES games, Star Fox and Yoshi's Island, which are both SuperFX games, are conspicuously absent from the Wii's Virtual Console.

My concern with this Ambassador program is how you would make sure that this account flag carries over if your 3DS ever dies, or you get a newer model of 3DS. I'd rather dislike the possible idea of this being tied only to the 3DS I originally logged in with.

It's linked to your Nintendo account, so I would imagine that you can use the "migrate" utility to move it to a new one, just like you can move from DSi to 3DS.

It doesn't have save states in the classic sense, but it does suspend your game if you close it down. So no writing down the annoying codes in Metroid, just pause, close program, turn off 3DS. It's right where you left it when you start again.

I was able to get all mine downloaded last night.

Was it worth the $40 value that is the first batch? Yeah, I think so. Wish Kid Icarus would have been on there though instead of WTF Golf!

Except the system has something built-in that you can write the codes in. I would have loved the ability to save (in the classic sense) so I could hop around the games a bit. I didn't expect it since you still had to do the awkward "MASH ALL THE BUTTONS!" thing with Link's Awakening. Much harder on the 3DS than on the Gameboy by the way.

They probably want to be able to sell Kid Icarus. Still, I can't figure out why they thought we'd want golf?

Oddly on my dsi you could press up on the d-pad and re arrange the icons whereas the 3ds needs the stylus but it was much faster to use the d-pad. I put a 32GB SD card in my 3ds and it works fine-apparently they didn't cap the flash slot @ 2GB so idk how big you could go before there was a problem.When i tried to move shanty to my SD card it said i wouldn't be able to play it-here we go again,nintenty fix this again.

It doesn't have save states in the classic sense, but it does suspend your game if you close it down. So no writing down the annoying codes in Metroid, just pause, close program, turn off 3DS. It's right where you left it when you start again.

I was able to get all mine downloaded last night.

Was it worth the $40 value that is the first batch? Yeah, I think so. Wish Kid Icarus would have been on there though instead of WTF Golf!

Except the system has something built-in that you can write the codes in. I would have loved the ability to save (in the classic sense) so I could hop around the games a bit. I didn't expect it since you still had to do the awkward "MASH ALL THE BUTTONS!" thing with Link's Awakening. Much harder on the 3DS than on the Gameboy by the way.

They probably want to be able to sell Kid Icarus. Still, I can't figure out why they thought we'd want golf?

I hated that! So I just used the Restore Point. Especially after using the in-game save for quite some time, then accidentally loading an old Restore Point and lost progress from dungeons 4-7. =( That was horrible. Stick to Restore Points.